Racist Harassment of Couple Traced to Unstable Youth

Robson and Tori Dufau, an interracial couple driven out of their Westchester home in 1986 by a barrage of racist mail and the killing of a pet rabbit, had been victimized by a mentally unstable youth who will undergo psychiatric care in a settlement agreed to by his father, Atty. Gen. John Van de Kamp announced Wednesday.

Van de Kamp said an investigation by his office, completed this week, did not support criminal charges against the youth, who was not identified because of his age.

Tori Dufau, who is black, and her husband, who is white, supported the resolution of the case, state officials said. The couple could not be reached for comment.

“This closes an ugly case of racial harassment,” Van de Kamp said in a statement released Wednesday. “I am glad that Robson and Tori Dufau know that this ordeal is over so they can get on with their lives.”

The couple moved from their Westchester home in May of 1986 after six months of harassment by an unknown assailant in which their car was pelted with eggs and threatening notes were dropped in their front door mail slot.

As things heated up, Robson Dufau bought a gun. And Tori Dufau said she discovered that her oldest son, David, 5, was beginning to believe it was “not OK” to be black. At one point, David asked the family’s dental receptionist to be his mother because she was white, believing that might end the family’s troubles.

Two weeks before the Dufaus fled the neighborhood, a final note warned them: “If you stay, you’ll pay.”

After investigators determined who had been responsible for the acts, the state could have filed a lawsuit seeking damages, officials said. But “because we’re dealing with a juvenile, we felt this was the most constructive solution,” said Duane Peterson, a spokesman for Van de Kamp.

“It protects the Dufaus from further harassment and also compels the juvenile to get the treatment he needs.” The boy’s treatment will continue for 18 months, Peterson said.

The Dufaus’ case was one of several widely reported incidents of hate crimes in the Los Angeles area in 1986, which also included vandalism against a black delicatessen operator in Glendale who was driven out of business and anti-Semitic acts by USC fraternities during “Greek Week” celebrations.

Those incidents, along with many others statewide, prompted Van de Kamp to successfully push for civil rights legislation that last year elevated racially linked misdemeanors to the status of “wobbler” crimes, in which a judge can also treat them as felonies.